g too
late. He delayed long enough to consult his books and to confer with
his legal and military advisers. I was fortunate enough to be present
when he read the final summing-up of his conclusions. He had
discovered that neither Germany nor France had signed the clause
of the Hague Convention forbidding aircraft to drop bombs on cities.
Therefore, the law that non-combatants of a city must be warned
before any bombardment is begun did not, in the case of these
two nations, technically apply, whatever the considerations of
humanity might dictate.

Mr. Herrick did not protest, for there was legally nothing to protest
about. He forwarded verbatim to Washington the protests of the French
Government.

One now sees many British and Belgian soldiers about Paris. They have
come in on the edges of the great retreat. Their morale is exactly the
reverse of what one would expect in troops who have been badly beaten.
They express great contempt for the German soldier. They describe him
as a stupid, brutal, big-footed creature, who does not know how to
shoot and who has a distaste for the bayonet. They seem unable to
understand why they have been beaten by the Germans and try to explain
it by saying, "There are so many of them."

The Belgians, nearly all of whom have come from Liege and Namur, speak
in the most awe-stricken terms of the effects of the big German siege
guns, which fire a shell 11.2 inches in diameter. These guns were
placed in distant valleys and could not be located by the Belgians.
Moreover, they outranged the guns of the forts and could not have been
injured even if they had been located. The forts thus lay hopeless and
awaited their doom, which came suddenly enough in the shape of great
shells dropping out of the sky upon their cupolas. The explosions
might have been approximated by combining an earthquake, a volcanic
eruption, and a cyclone.

Namur was surrounded by twelve forts. The bombardment began on a
Wednesday night and three of the forts were reduced to scrap in two
days. The Germans marched through the gap thus made and took the other
forts in the rear, so that in less than three days Namur was
completely in their possession. This will undoubtedly be the system
used against Paris, and apparently there is no antidote. The forts
cannot reply, for they cannot determine where the big guns are
located; but meanwhile the big guns know the exact position of the
forts, and they, moreover, outrange the fort